Friday, December 2, 2016

Baby Alpaca Chunky is the perfect yarn for holiday gifts. It is soft, luxurious, and works up quickly. There are over 40 colors to chose from to work up something special for someone deserving - or even better, yourself (it makes a great reward for all of the holiday knitting and crocheting). Mitts, cowls, and scarves are my favorite projects for Baby Alpaca Chunky.

I decided it would be fun to do a 2 skein striped cowl. I picked 2 trend colors - Damson and Grape Compote and settled on using Fibonacci to inspire my striping repeats. It is a simple 2 stitch, 2 round repeat and works up fairly quickly.

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

A skein of yarn has so much potential. First you consider the fiber, gauge and twist and then there is the color - although, sometimes there is a certain color that just grabs you. Baby Alpaca is one of those fibers that just needs to be touched. The color that spoke to me was Mineral Red (3063) - a color I have been seeing in the trends.

Pure Alpaca is a light worsted to DK weight baby Alpaca yarn with 220 yards in each 100 gram skein. The hand is heavenly and paired with the classic 4/8 twist is a joy to work with. It is important to be mindful of the nature of Alpaca as it does not have the memory of wool. The luscious, soft fabric has a propensity to grow.

I decided that I wanted to make some form of a shawl. Originally I had thought a simple triangle top-down shawl would work and then I started to swatch.

I found that I really like the structure combined with openness of the Irish Net stitch. In the process of swatching, I decided an asymmetrical triangle would be a better fit and took part of the Irish Net stitch to get to where I was happy with the shape and look.

I ended up with a US 8 needle to allow some drape with the stitch. The main body of the pattern is a 6 row repeat and very easy to memorize. I still have yet to decide on an edging, but have a while to go until I need to....

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

I am one of those people that actually enjoys swatching. It gives me time to get to know a yarn. It can talk to me and tell me what works really well and what is probably better used with a different yarn.

North Shore is an acrylic that has a similar look and feel of mercerized cotton. The DK gauge yarn comes in 27 solids and 12 prints.

The yarn has lovely drape and sheen. North Shore is easy care (machine wash & dry) and quite durable.

I cast on with US 6 needles and tried a variety of different stitches. Since North Shore is an acrylic, I have to remember that you have to like the way it knits up before you block. Acrylics don't usually respond very much to blocking. Knit and Purl combinations tended to not pop as much as they would on a springier fiber. Ribbing was a bit drapey. Stockinette worked well.

Eyelets and garter were fine but it did not show the drape of the yarn. My favorite stitch pattern that I tried was a Fern Lace. I plan to swatch some moss and garter stitch to use the Fern Lace for a blanket.

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Baby blankets make wonderful gifts. It never hurts to have extras and there is nothing quite like a hand knit blanket. Sunseeker Shade is a DK weight cotton-acrylic blend that is the perfect weight for a warm weather blanket. Each 100 gram skein contains a generous 246 yards. The easy-care (read machine wash & dry) cotton blend is available in a wide range of colors that vary from rich jewel tones to soft pastels.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

This year my older son was part of a Little League baseball team. It has been a truly wonderful experience for him. The team did quite well during the season - and then it was the playoffs. Regular season had games that were up to 2 hours in length. Championship playoff games were 6 innings. His baby brother was at almost every game strapped to me in an infant carrier... which meant my hands were free. So I was able to get some knitting done. Most of this hat was completed during 2 of the playoff games (until Baby Brother decided he was done with sleeping and wanted to watch).

Anthem is one of our newer yarns - and it is great for baby projects, charity, crochet, and anything easy care. It is a soft acrylic that reminds me of wool. Each 100 gram skein contains 186 yards and is available in 33 vibrant colors. The medium size hat used less than 1/2 of the skein - so you can easily get 2 small or medium hats out of 1 skein.

Join in round, careful not to twist. Place marker to show beginning of round.

K2, P2 for
1,5", 1.75", 2"

K until meaures
3", 3.5", 4" from cast on edge

Decreases:

For Large size
only (start here)

1 - K20, K2tog

2 - K

3 - K19, K2tog

4 - K

For Medium (start
here)& Large size (continue):

1 - K18, K2tog

2 - K

3 - K17, K2tog

4 - K

For all sizes (start Small size here) (continue larger sizes):

1 - K16, K2tog

2 - K

3 - K15, K2tog

4 - K

5 - K14, K2tog

6 - K

7 - K13, K2tog

8 - K

9 - K12, K2tog

10 - K

11 - K11, K2tog

12 - K

13 - K10, K2tog

14 - K

15 - K9, K2tog

16 - K

17 - K8, K2tog

18 - K

19 - K7, K2tog

20 - K

21 - K6, K2tog

22 - K

23 - K5, K2tog

24 - K

25 - K4, K2tog

26 - K

27 - K3, K2tog

28 - K

29 - K2, K2tog

30 - K

31 - K1, K2tog

32 - K

33 - K2tog

At this point you
can cut the yarn and pull through the remaining stitches or you can knit the
remaining 4 stitches for 2-3" before you cut the yarn and pull through the
remaining stitches. Then you can tie the I-cord into a knot.

Monday, May 2, 2016

Luna is a single-ply Peruvian cotton with a wrap that gives a nubby texture while maintaining the cottony softness. It works up beautifully for hats, blankets, washcloths, and shawls. Each 50 g skein contains 82 yards and is enough for a quick baby hat or washcloth.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Fixation is great for hats for all ages - especially for those that need something with a little bit of stretch. Each 50 g ball contains 100 yards which is plenty for a quick baby hat or chemo cap. The little bit of elastic helps the cotton hold its shape. In addition, there is a wide variety of solids and spray-dyed colors to choose from.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

For the past
couple of years, I’ve had the privilege of being one of several crochetdesigners for Cascade Yarns. I’ve had a good run with coming up designs that
Cascade has chosen to add to their crochet pattern line, and in honor of
National Crochet Month, they asked me to explain how I design a crochet pattern.

Some
designers start with a concept. They will draw out what they want to make,
choose the measurements, choose the stitch pattern to use, and then they pick
up the yarn and hook. Other designers, like myself, start with the yarn and
hook and work from there. Personally, as a designer, I look for a stitch
pattern that will work with the yarn, and once I have a stitch pattern fixed, I
start to brainstorm on what finished item to make.

The Cloud Wrap pattern all started with the yarn – El Cielo. I was originally given a
sample of the yarn to make a crochet swatch for a completely different pattern
idea, but I had enough yarn left that I decided to propose another idea as
well. After some trial and error, I came upon a stitch pattern that worked well
with the yarn.

The nature
of the El Cielo yarn is that it is super lightweight, but the halo of the
alpaca provides tons of warmth. Knowing these characteristics, I decided to
propose a rectangle shawl. I figured out the dimensions and how much yarn it
would take to make a full size shawl, and then sent the pattern proposal for
the Cloud Wrap along with several others.

Shortly
after Cascade Yarns received my proposals, they contacted me to let me know on
which patterns they wanted to move forward. They decided to pass on the crochet
design they had me re-stitch with the El Cielo yarn, but they like the swatch
for the Cloud Wrap design. However, they wanted a modification. They had
already accepted a rectangle shawl design with this yarn, so they wanted to
know if I could use the same stitch pattern but in a different shawl shape.
Being up for a challenge, I said yes.

I decided to
create a triangle shaped shawl. That would mean modifying the pattern with
either increases or decreases. In looking at the shape of the stitches
themselves, they are wider at the top than at the base. That shape lends itself
more easily to increases rather than decreases, which also helped determine how
the shawl would be made. When increasing stitches, a triangle shawl will be
shaped one of two ways – bottom up or top down.

I also
looked at how the stitch repeat itself was made to determine which direction I
wanted the tops of the stitches to face. In reviewing all of the information
about the stitches, I decided that a center start, top down shawl would be the
best way to create a triangle shawl shape with this stitch pattern.

It was
finally time to start crocheting! The nature of the yarn itself doesn’t have a
lot of stretch or give, so to create enough of an increase to develop the
triangle shape, not only would increases be created along what would be the top
edge of the shawl, but I would need to figure out how to create increases along
the shell spine. My original test stitching had only 2 and 3 chain spaces on
either side of the center spine, but after 8 rows, there wasn’t enough give and
the lack of increases in the center was pulling the top edge down. I carefully
ripped back several rows and decided to add sections of 4 and 5 chain spaces.
Those extra chains provided enough give in the center that the top edge of the
shawl would lay straight.

Still,
something wasn’t right. Those extra chains created the stretch I needed for the
shawl shape, but I also needed to increase the stitch pattern as well or it
would be nothing but chains and the center shell by the time I got to the
bottom – not the look I was going for. A little more juggling with stitch
placement on the chain spaces and the final design was complete. I worked two
full sets of increases, and then sent a picture to Cascade Yarns for approval.
They said yes, so I picked up the swatch and kept crocheting on it to create
the shawl.

Once I
finished crocheting the shawl, I decided it needed an edging to finish it off.
I still had enough yarn left in the skein I was using to make an edging, so I
was determined to make this a one skein shawl. After trying a couple more
complicated edgings and not liking either the look or the amount of yarn usage,
I decided to go with something simple. I chose to alternate single crochet
stitches with large shells created from 9 treble stitches, with a larger shell
at the center point.

After
completing the first couple of edging shells, I knew I had made the right
choice. After finishing stitching the shawl, I wet blocked it out, then wrote
up the pattern from the notes I took while stitching.

And there
you have it – all the behind the scenes details of how the Cloud Wrap Shawl in
El Cielo was created. Thank you for going on this design journey with me.
Please check out all of the wonderful crochet patterns that Cascade Yarns
offers to crocheters for free. I’m sure you will find several new favorites to
love.

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Longwood is a treat to work with. The extra-fine merino superwash is soft enough for a baby and is spun into a complex twist that loves cables. Each squishy ball contains 191 yards and there are more than 40 luscious colors to choose from.

Baby hats are a great way to play with a yarn as they work up quickly and the recipient usually will not complain. The hard part is if you take too long they will have outgrown it before you do the decreases. As an added bonus, you will get 2 of the smallest size hats out of 1 ball.